Chiswick Auctions, Londres, 22 avril 2020: n°82 (ill.)

Collection particulière belge

So-called “Veneto-Saracenic” wares were long thought to be of European origin, before being reassigned to Mamluk Syria and Egypt, produced for export to Venice and Europe. On this subject, the research of Sylvia Auld remains a key reference (Renaissance Venice, Islam, and Mahmud the Kurd: a metalworking enigma, London, 2004).

This bowl, with its finely chased decoration, has retained its lid. It belongs to Group “A” in Auld’s classification, in which a flat lid covers a hemispherical bowl without a rim. The decoration of interlaced stems and circular medallions is likewise typical of these wares produced in Mamluk territories at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. Indeed, two objects in the Musée du Louvre—a document case and a lidded bowl—are decorated with partially identical motifs (inv. AD 5598/1 and AD 20331). A similar bowl is held in the British Museum, London (inv. 1878,1230.695), and another, also very close in design, was sold at Christie’s, London, 26 October 2017, lot 65.